Sea shanties and maritime music

I sing the Chanty Man. A tremulous echo is all that is left of him upon the seas. Soon it will have escaped – fled down the winds of yesterday of which he sang so lustily...

William Brown Meloney IV, Everybody's Magazine, 1915

This Day in History (February 29, 1908)

This Day in History (January 8, 1806)

The death of Lord Nelson was a national tragedy like no other for England. "From Greenwich to Whitehall Stairs, on the 8th of January, 1806, in one of the greatest Aquatic Processions that ever was beheld on the River Thames" drifted the royal shallop (barge). The event is referenced in the modern lament, Carrying Nelson Home. Nelson is mentioned in nearly a dozen other songs.

Try a random shanty sampling

Brave Admiral Benbow
Forecastle song

Oh, we sailed to Virginia and thence to Fayall
Where we watered our shipping and then weighed all.
Then in view on the seas, boys, seven sails we did espy;
Oh, we mannéd our capstan and weighed speedily

The first we come up with was a brigantine sloop
And we asked if the others were as big as they looked.
Then turning to windward as near as we could lie
We found there was ten men-o'-war a-cruising thereby.

Oh, we drew up our squadron in a very nice line
And boldly we fought them for full four hours time;
Then the day being spent, boys, and the night coming on
We left them alone till the very next morn.

The very next morning the engagement proved hot
And brave Admiral Benbow received a chain shot.
And when he was wounded to his men he did say:
“Take me up in your arms, boys, and carry me away!”

Oh, the guns they did rattle and the bullets did fly,
But Admiral Benbow for help would not cry:
“Take me down to the cockpit, there is ease for my smarts,
If my merry men see me, it would sure break their hearts.”

And there Captain Kirkby proved a coward at last
And with Wade played at bo-peep behind the main-mast
And there they did stand, boys, and shiver and shake
For fear that those French dogs their lives they should take.

The very next morning at the break of the day
They hoisted their tops'ls and so bore away;
We bore up for Port Royal, where the people flocked much
To see Admiral Benbow carried to Kingston Church.

Come all you brave fellows, wherever you be,
And drink to the health of our King and our Queen.
And another good health to the girls that we know,
And a third in remembrance of brave Admiral Benbow.

Oh, yes, drink up a health, boys, to the girls we do know
And a third for remembrance of brave Admiral Benbow.

Rude Boreas
Forecastle song

Come rude Boreas, blust'ring railer, list ye landsmen all to me
Shipmates hear a brother sailor, sing of the dangers of the sea.
From bounding billows, first in motion, when the distant whirlwinds rise,
To the tempest troubled ocean, when the skies contend with skies.

Hark the bosun's hoarsely bawlin', by tops'l sheets an' halyards stand
Donn yer stays'ls, hard, boys, hard, down t'gallants quick be hauling,
See it freshens, set taut the braces, tops'l sheets now let go,
Luff, boys, luff, don't make wry faces, up yer tops'ls nimbly clew.

Now all ye on down beds a-sportin', fondly locked in Beauty's arms,
Fresh enjoyments, wanton courtin', safe from all but love alarms,
Round us roars the angry tempest, see what fears our minds enthrall,
Harder yet, it blows still harder, hark again the bosun's call.

The tops'l yard points to the wind, boys, see all clear to reef each course,
Let the foresheet go, don't mind boys, tho' the weather should be worse;
Fore'n 'aft the sprits'l yard get, reef the mizze, see all clear;
Hands up each preventer-brace get, man the for-yard, cheer, boys cheer!

All the while fierce thunder roaring, peel on peel contending flash,
On our head fierce rainfalls pourin', in our eyes blue lightning's flash;
All around us one wide water, all above us one black sky,
Different deaths at once surround us, Hark! What means that dreadful cry?

"The foremast's gone!" cried every tongue out, o'er the lee twelve foot above deck.
A leak there is beneath the chesstrees sprung, pipe all hands to clear the wreck;
Come out the lanyards all to pieces; come, me hearts, be stout an' bold,
Plumb the well, the leak increases, four foot water in the hold.

On the lee beam there is land, boys, let the guns overboard be thrown.
To the pump, come every hand, boys; see our mizzenmast is gone!
The leak we've found; it can't pour faster, we've lightened her a foot or more,
Up an' rig a jury foremast. She's right, she's right, boys, we're off shore.

Now once more on shore we're thinkin', since kind heaven has saved our lives,
Come the cup, now let's be drinkin', to our sweethearts an' our wives,
Fill it up, about ship wheel it, close to our lips a-brimmin' fine,
Where's the tempest? Now, who feels it? None! the danger's drowned in wine!